Revolutions in Reading

[HarryHutton]

Wondering what you would define as major revolutionary moments in the recent history of reading?

• Wikipedia founded (2001) - so long encyclopedias
• Amazon Kindle (2007) - popularised e-ink reading devices
• Apple iPad (2010) - reading a4 documents, popularisation of interactive textbooks
• Galaxy Note 10.1 (2012) - hand-annotating documents and books
• Decline of print medium for magazines and newspapers (ongoing) - in favour of social media links or search engines

Agree/disagree? Anything to add? Would love to hear your thoughts!

[QuantumIguana]

I think the e-book was revolutionary, perhaps comparable to the invention of the printing press. But I don't think the Kindle deserves the credit for it, and I say this as a Kindle user. It wasn't the first e-reader on the market, and this revolution would have taken place anyway. The last three on your are insignificant in comparison.

Wikipedia did transform encyclopedias, but I think that would have happened anyway. I think encyclopedias would have transitioned to being online anyway, but what Wikipedia did was make it free, and open to a much more vast array of subjects than encyclopedias would have had if they hadn't been free.

[crane3]

The list should include the Palm(s) as the really 1st ereader even if the books are mostly free but one usually needed to buy a couple types of reader app for the different formats.

I even had the Webster's Third International Dictionary on my Palm Tunston E2; and the American Heritage Dictionary with Thesaurus also for reference. Got several reference books for classes including a free reference book for Pharmacy; mythology texts used for reference as so many authors make references to mythology characters in their stories/novels.

[HYPE]

Originally Posted by HarryHutton

• Decline of print medium for magazines and newspapers (ongoing) - in favour of social media links or search engines

This is the result of a revolution rather than a revolution by itself.

I believe the only notable revolutions are the invention of the libraries, of the printing press, and of the ebooks [readers included]. You mentioned several particular devices, but I don't think that we could ever settle on a fixed list.

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by HYPE

I believe the only notable revolutions are the invention of the libraries, of the printing press, and of the ebooks [readers included].

Those certainly are big.

One might also add copyright and steam-powered printing.

I wonder if the biggest reading revolution of recent years isn't in the device area, but in self-publishing. It's even more of a revolution if you include not just books, but also the reading of posts in forums like this.

Now, personally, I am unaware of ever having read a self-published book (other than titles like What Color is Your Parachute? that started out self-published but were past that stage by the time I read them). However, it is quite recent that self-publishing best-sellers became common. Over time, self-publishing is going to have an even bigger effect on the kind of reading material available to us.

[JSWolf]

You made a major mistake. It's not the Amazon Kindle that should be listed. It's the Sony LIBRIé eBook Reader (2004) that should be listed as it is the first eInk Reader. The Kindle is not the first and if not for Sony, there might not be a Kindle.

[crich70]

I think Project Gutenberg should be included as well. Not much of a revolution to have ereaders if there is nothing online to be read.

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You made a major mistake. It's not the Amazon Kindle that should be listed. It's the Sony LIBRIé eBook Reader (2004) that should be listed as it is the first eInk Reader. The Kindle is not the first and if not for Sony, there might not be a Kindle.

Were it not for the Palm series of PDAs and Peanut Press, would there have been an E-ink reader?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Phogg

Were it not for the Palm series of PDAs and Peanut Press, would there have been an E-ink reader?

Yes, they too should be added to the list.

[JoHunt]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You made a major mistake. It's not the Amazon Kindle that should be listed. It's the Sony LIBRIé eBook Reader (2004) that should be listed as it is the first eInk Reader. The Kindle is not the first and if not for Sony, there might not be a Kindle.

If you would put aside your anti-Amazon bias for just a moment and re-read the list, you will see it says "Amazon Kindle (2007) - popularised e-ink reading devices" which cannot be denied

[GERGE]

I believe biggest revolutions in reading should be audiobooks.

[Freeshadow]

In READING, thus audio 'books' are out. That they may revolutionised the older, oral tradition of passing information forward I'll grant them.

[howyoudoin]

Originally Posted by HarryHutton

[*]Wikipedia founded (2001) - so long encyclopedias

Absolutely agree

[*]Amazon Kindle (2007) - popularised e-ink reading devices

Agree. The were not the first, but they brought e-readers into mass consciousness.

[*]Apple iPad (2010) - reading a4 documents, popularisation of interactive textbooks

Agree. Apple does not get enough credit for sticking to 4:3 while the vast majority of the rest went with 16:9

[*]Galaxy Note 10.1 (2012) - hand-annotating documents and books

Disagree. I can hand-annotate documents on my iPad too. I don't think annotation ability by itself is revolutionary. It is a natural consequence of touch screens. IMO the agent who popularised capacitive touch on a large screen deserves the credit, whoever it may be (I do not know whom to attribute it to).

[*]Decline of print medium for magazines and newspapers (ongoing) - in favour of social media links or search engines

Disagree. Print is not in decline. If anything, with growing population and literacy world-wide, print has never been healthier as a medium for dissemination and consumption of information.

[Froide]

Originally Posted by HarryHutton

Wondering what you would define as major revolutionary moments in the recent history of reading?

• Wikipedia founded (2001) - so long encyclopedias
• Amazon Kindle (2007) - popularised e-ink reading devices
• Apple iPad (2010) - reading a4 documents, popularisation of interactive textbooks
• Galaxy Note 10.1 (2012) - hand-annotating documents and books
• Decline of print medium for magazines and newspapers (ongoing) - in favour of social media links or search engines

Agree/disagree? Anything to add? Would love to hear your thoughts!

Pre-2001 (not sure what exact date to pinpoint) - the popularization of the World Wide Web and of computers, and the concomitant widespread posting, dissemination, and consumption of material to be read online or via downloads

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by howyoudoin

Print is not in decline. If anything, with growing population and literacy world-wide, print has never been healthier as a medium for dissemination and consumption of information.

This may be relevant:

Why newspaper markets are growing in China and India, while they decline in the US and UK

Where I live, newspapers are collapsing, with circulation down by half, and advertising revenue fallen much more sharply.

Re paper books in the US:

Strange as it may seem, we know of no reliable, publicly-available way to get comprehensive statistics for book sales . . .

My impression is that sales of bound books are holding up much better, in the US, than periodicals. Book shelf space, in stores, is way down, but a lot of that is due to Amazon selling loads of printed paper.

Is the US a leading indicator for the rest of the world? Don't know.